| sasha stadnyk |

Walk along Fairy Stream, white sand dunes, seafood stalls with giant prawns, and OH YEAH we rode ostriches! 

The next morning we swapped hostels. We moved across the street to the Mui Ne Backpackers Village that some people we met had recommended. We had a Sand Dune day tour booked for the afternoon, so after breakfast we waited for our ride. When an army style jeep pulled up, we squished eight people into its five seats, complete with a plastic stool in the trunk, and were on our way. Stopped at Fairy Stream where we strolled along in the water for a while. Then we made our way to the white sand dunes. I honestly had no idea that Vietnam even had sand dunes, so it was pretty neat to walk around and see something unexpected. Finally we headed to the red sand dunes for sunset. For dinner we had set up a seafood BBQ at this one restaurant along the strip, so made our way there before it got too dark. I love seafood. Mmm. 

August 6th 2015: Today was the say we spent on the Mekong River. It was a bit of a ways south from where we were staying in Hoh Chi Minh, but we decided it was worth the trip. Our first stop was at this temple where there ware giant Buddah statues. It was pretty cool. Then we made our way to the boat that took us out on the water for the day. We went to Unicorn Island for fresh honey and snack. They pulled the honey combs right out of the trough and we stuck our fingers directly into them to try the honey all while there were thousands of bees buzzing around, no suits, no masks, we were totally exposed and it was like the bees didn't even notice we were there. For some reason they also had a python there, so we held that. Continuing down the river we learnt a bit about it before we stopped for lunch. Glad we brought our books because they had some hammocks to lay in while we took a bit of a break. Next our boat took us around to some smaller boats where we split into groups and paddled down little side streams.This was pretty cool, and it was our first exposure to the rice hats. Last stop was a spot where we took mini horse n buggies to where we would have some fresh fruit and listen to some authentic Vietnamese music. It was a long day, but I had a lot of fun. Great start to Vietnam!

In the morning we went to the Vietnam War Museum. It was a nice day to walk around and read about some of the history. They had a big section on some tortures that were used on people imprisoned that was pretty interesting. In the afternoon we took a bus to the Chu Chi Tunnels. These were really neat. Some of the holes carved out were so small, I couldn’t believe it. Our tour guide told us that they were only built for Vietnamese people to fit, not Americans. There was also a range where you could shoot an AK47, but only Brooklyn fired off a few rounds. For dinner we went to this little hole in the wall near our hotel and shared a “hot pot”. None of us had a clue what we were doing, so our server, who spoke no english, kept coming over to check on us and basically prepared our whole meal for us at the table. The Vietnam Inn Saigon is the hotel we were staying at and it was actually pretty nice. Every night we got two free beers each up at the rooftop bar. After pounding a few back we tagged along with the hotel pub crawl. It wasn’t a real crazy night, but we did get free tank tops. 

I have seriously neglected posting for a while, sorry mom. Anyways, I will update it eventually, but for now all you need to know is that Vietnam is absolutely wonderful!

Aug 1st: Drove into Seminyak today and walked around. Basically just took some time to unwind from our dive course. We ate dinner at this place called Frankenstein, it was like a zombie cabaret. Aug 2nd: The following morning we just chilled and explored a few of the shops around town. Seminyak is a little more hip, so there were some cute shops to look at. We found a cafe called Dusty's where we sat and spent most of the afternoon taking and reading. We were supposed to go toTaco Casa for dinner but had one too many beers at the hostel and ended up just going out with a bunch of English guys we met. They brought to this Adrenaline sports bar to watch a football match (soccer game for anyone who speaks North American English). I had no idea what was going on but it was fun. Later we all walked down the road to this other club which I could not tell you the name of, but what cool because it had a whole bunch of different sections that all had a different vibe going on. Aug 3rd: The next day sucked. We were all hungover and had to catch our early (6am) flight to Jakarta. This would have been so bad if we all didn't stay up until four o'clock in the morning the night before. We were a little bit of a mess, but we all got to the airport ok and made our flight. Jakarta was pretty disgusting, so we stayed in the Packer Lodge common room pretty much all day. Thank god our hostel was nice. It had a movie room and that we sat in and watched We Are the Millers and Despicable Me 2. Bali was amazing, but I will be happy to move on to the next part of our adventure! In the mean time Terima Kashi (thank-you in Indonesian) for keeping up with me!

July 29th- 31st 2015: We definitely finished off this month the right way. Doing our PADI dive certification was so worth while. The first day of our course we spent the morning doing theory. Modules 1-3. After lunch (which was provided along with three nights accommodation as we did our course) we got fitted with dive gear. We spent the afternoon in the pool getting comfortable and learning some basic dive skills from our instructor, Sidarta. He’s been diving since ‘88, so I felt like we were in pretty good hands. The funny event of the day was Kyla falling twice on the stairs. It was extremely painful for her, but the fact that it happened twice to her was funny for the rest of us. Day two of the course was an early morning. We were taken out to  the Tulamben Droppoff and the Coral Garden where we did our first two open water dives. Getting used to the regulator and BCD on my own underwater wasn’t too bad. For the most part I was more at ease than I would have expected. We had lunch back at the dive center and completed Module 4 and our final exam of our PADI certification course. The third day of the course was by far my favorite. We completed our last two open water dives, and it was spectacular. We went all around the Tulamben Wreck- the US Liberty on the first dive and the second one we swam through it. The visibility was pretty good over the last few days. We saw loads of fish, whip rays, puffers, shrimp, lizard fish, stone fish, and a turtle. Going in and out of the wreck was really neat. And guess what?! Now we’re PADI certified open water divers! Such a cool experience, and I can’t thank Jukung diving enough. They we wonderfully accommodating and helpful! 

July 28th 2015: One of the nice things about most places you stay in indo is that they include breakfast, so we ate a Pesano before checking out and boarding yet another boat. This time is was to go to northern Bali, Amed. This is where we will be doing our PADI dive certification. We got in to Jukung dive around lunch time, and dropped all of our bags off. they have a nice pool, so we splashed around and got a little more sun. Later we went for a walk up the hill overlooking the bay. Then we walked back down to Bobo for sunset dinner. I know it seems like I’ve been mentioning sunset dinners a lot, and it makes it seem like I’m on some romantic Bali trip, but I’m not. I wish, but it’s just a thing that people do here. Anyways, while we’re gabbing at the table we all bought a bracelet from these cute little girls playing on the beach. It is a pretty tame night for us since we have to be up early to get started on our dive course!

Me at my favorite corn stand, and the girls out for bbq.

We decided to change our travel plans last night, so there are a lot of things up in the air. In the end we decided to try and get our diving certification, so we left Gili Meno and headed back to Gili T. When we arrived we had a hard time finding a place to do the dive course (they were all too expensive), and most of the hostels and homestays were booked up for the night. Finally we found refuge at Pesano. Our room wasn’t ready for a couple hours, so we ate had another butter chicken while we waited. We just chilled the rest of the afternoon. We were all pretty wiped from being in the sun non-stop for the last couple days. All we did for the rest of the day was eat. We went back to Little Italy for pizza, and went back to get Martabak and Terang Bulan from the street. We also went for a nice BBQ dinner at Cafe Gili. Oh yea, and I got a picture with my corn guy, Andy. I’m gonna miss getting late night corn on the cob, that’s for sure. 

WARNING: this post contains photos of my food. I couldn't help myself. The roast house burger was just too yummy, and the fried fish was just too interesting. There's also a few photos of me imitating people one night out.

Found the snorkel area on Gili Trawangan on our bike ride around the island.

July 26th: Had jaffles for breakfast, which was just a grilled cheese, tomato, and onion sandwich, but really tasty. A friend of our hotel receptionist took us our snorkeling this morning. We took a slow boast around the island where we stopped at about 4 different spots. The water was unbelievably clear. We saw lots and lots of fish, a ship wreak, and three different large sea turtles swimming about. The ocean really is a whole other world. This was one of the most enjoyable mornings we’ve had so far, in my opinion. For dinner we crossed the quiet island once again to go to Sasak. We sat and played cards and chatted for a while, then enjoyed some cryspys (meant to be crispies) and of course Nasi Goreng. Which I found out is the national dish of Indonesia. 

Rented bikes from Welcome Inn, and biked around the island this morning. It was a pretty nice ride. We stopped a few times along the way. Once was to take some pictures on these swings the in the water. The bike ride around the island took about an hour. It was so hot out though, and when were told that the road went all the way around the island it was a lie. The road goes almost all the way around but there are several spots of sand that you have to struggle to push your bike through. This probably contributed to our sweating quite a bit. After our morning exercise we lay on the beach again and bought some cool bracelets. For dinner we went back to Pesano again for butter chicken. Later in the night there was bintang involved, more beer pong involved, and some dancing involved. We hopped from Evolution to Rudy’s to Jiggy’s. Lights out. 

July 23rd: We walked along the road the opposite way as yesterday and found ourselves a nice patch of beach to lay on. The day was pretty uneventful, just your basic tanning and reading, that is until we were on lounge chairs in front of a full restaurant at Rudy’s. I thought I’d just casually flip over from my belly to my back to read when uh oh my bathing suit top snaps off and I accidentally flashed a few tables full of people! As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough to lose my top in front of strangers, I had to struggle to get it back on. Stef finally helped me out to reattach the strap and discovered that the clasp broke clean off. Sure enough, it was eventful and we got a good laugh out of it. Omg dinner tonight was mouthwatering. We went down an ally way and got the Special Burger from the Roast House for $6. It was a massive burger. One of those ones that you can’t put down once you’ve picked it up. It was also so yummy that it possibly rivals Betty’s burgers that I have previously written to be the best I’ve ever had. We hung out for most of the night after that, and of course a couple hours of nothing leads us all to be hungry again. On our way back to Welcome Inn we stopped and got Udang Goreng (prawns) and fried fish as well as Terangbulan and Martabak. Two deep fried dishes that I can’t really explain but that were delicious.

July 21st 2015: We spent basically the whole day traveling. We took a bus from Ubud to Padangbai where we took a fast boat to Gili Trawangan. We stood at the dock for a couple of hours before the boat actually showed up to get us, and when we finally climbed aboard with the other hundred passengers we were all worried that our bags wouldn't be loaded on with us. Not to worry. Our bags came along with us across the water and we arrived safely on Gili T an hour and a half later. We went for dinner at the Blue Marlin where we met up with my friend Tarren, his girlfriend Devon, and their friend Marla. 18 bintangs over dinner and we were ready to have our first night out on the island. We went to Lava Bar, played beer pong at Evolution, and walked through Sama-Sama Reggae Bar (which some guys old us was just called reggae reggae). There's a decent sized night market that runs from 6pm to 12am, so we stumbled over there for a drunk meal. I got Nasi Goreng, of course, and a corn on the cob from these Indonesian guys named Andy and Arn. Sweet gili dreams for a bunch of Canadian girls.

July 20th 2015: Our morning was quite relaxing, we enjoyed our free breakfast from our homestay which usually consisted of banana pancakes and fresh fruit. After breaky we did a 2km trek to some rice fields. It was pretty steady incline, but the walk was worth it for the views. Ubud slowly disappeared as we got higher and lush green tree tops came into view with bungalows plopped amongst the forest. At the top we had a fruit plate at Karsa Kafe overlooking the rice fields and some cute koi ponds. After sweating out most of my bodily fluids on the morning walk we returned to Laba Laba for our favorite Nasi Goreng. This particular one came with seafood fried rice, a fried egg, satay, and tempura shrimp to make a plate of deliciousness. An added bonus was that it was only $4. Processing our meals we went to Nur Salon for an amongst relaxing massage. It was a very well spent $17. It was quiet night in Ubud but we went for mojitos at Laughing Buddha and checked out CP Lounge before calling it a night.